Operator News
China – Morgan Stanley believes Macau’s licence holders will be granted three more years
By Phil - 14 December 2020
Macau six casino concessionaires are now likely to have their licences renewed for a further three years by the SAR Government, abandoning initial plans to hold an open tender due to time restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Morgan Stanley analysts Praveen Choudhary, Gareth Leung and Thomas Allen made the prediction, saying: “For open bidding to happen, Macau has to run a public consultation, and then put the new law in the Legislative Assembly (the draft is not ready yet), which could take more than a year. We do not expect this to happen in 2021/22 due to the time crunch. Similar to March 2019 (a year before SJM/MGM’s licenses expired), we expect this decision to be taken by June 2021 – a year before the expiry date in June 2022.”
At this time, SJM and MGM both paid US$25m for their two-year extension in March 2019. Morgan Stanley believes a similar fee will be charged this time around.
